Category Archives: quality of life

Environmental groups and neighborhood advocates gathered recently at Rincon Park on San Francisco’s waterfront to announce a new campaign to protect the well-used waterfront park from being darkened by shadows from proposed new high-rise luxury towers. Later this summer, developers are expected to ask city officials to approve two tall new luxury high-rise condo towers: one rising to 240 feet at 75 Howard facing the Embarcadero and another rising to 400 feet at 160 Folsom, a block from the waterfront. As proposed, the two towers would be far taller than the 8 Washington “wall on the waterfront” luxury condos that voters overwhelmingly rejected. Continue reading →

Hi all, we’ve been hearing increasing reports of “drones behaving badly” in Mission Bay, such as flying near residential towers and crashing into them, buzzing the channel and “terrorizing the birds,” etc., and there has now been at least one news report of drone-facilitated graffiti on a billboard. I’m just curious to know how pervasive the problem is currently in our region. If you have witnessed a drone creating problems in a way that you feel breaks the law or otherwise defies common decency, please let me know. No need to e-mail the whole list; I don’t want to add to people’s e-mail burdens. I can send out a quick note about what I learn afterwards.

And if they are towing tiny little advertising banners, I’ll be REALLY interested!

“Traffic tends to move faster on a wide one-way road than on a comparable two-way city street, and slower traffic means fewer accidents. The rest of these results are theoretically connected to each other in complex ways. To the extent that vice flourishes on neglected high-speed, one-way, getaway roads, two-way streets may be less conducive to certain crimes. If they bring slower traffic and, as a result, more cyclists and pedestrians, that also creates more “eyes on the street” — which, again, deters crime. A decline in crime and calmer traffic in turn may raise property values — which may also increase the demand of residents to police and care for their neighborhood.” To read the complete article, visit The Washington Post blogs →

Build baby build more offices with no regional transit improvements, and voila!

fromJAMIE WHITAKER

San Francisco has the second worst traffic in the country, just behind Los Angeles, according to a website that measures congestion levels in urban cities. To read the complete article, go to CBS San Francisco →

In his role as chair of Budget and Finance, former Supervisor Chris Daly was rather blunt when the Planning Department came before his committee looking for money: you’re not gonna see one dime of this funding until you listen to the community and start cooperating with them.

The City’s leaders are prioritizing the profits of developers yet again (big surprise since they’re major political money contributors, right?). Please watch this news clip about the excessive numbers of nighttime construction noise permits that San Francisco’s Dept. of Building Inspections keeps approving with no regard for the impacts of sleep deprivation on all of our safety (sleepy drivers make for more accidents on the roads) and particularly the health, safety, and well-being of directly affected neighbors: Video | NBC Bay Area

While most of us will be earning our mortgage payment at jobs and unable to attend, if this issue affects you in a major way, you’d better take time off to go testify and make public comment to ask the City to stop harassing and harming your health with the excessive issuance of nighttime noisy construction permits.